Imagine Ben & Jerry’s famed cow mascot Woody, storming into your office moo-ing and dancing with you while dishing out scoops of their new ice-cream flavor, Clusterfluff (yes, I know the name is quite interesting). The next thing you know, the entire office is Clusterfluffed.

As part of Clusterfluff’s launch in Singapore, the folks from RIOT brought the Cowmobile to Singapore for the first time ever. The Cowmobile will then go to specific locations based on “mooo” requests from fans on Facebook.

Over a period of 5 days (4 – 8 April), all fans needed to do was to Like Ben & Jerry’s Facebook page and “mooo” their request via a specially created application for the Cowmobile to request for a stopover at their office, school or home.

More “moos”, more chance.

In just 5 days, 784 requests were made and the amount of Facebook Likes increased by more than 28% (1,412). Twitter followers increased by over 15% (155) with 186 mentions and re-tweets. The Cowmobile went to 31 different locations and gave out a total of 5,960 free scoops of Clusterfluff.

Riding on that momentum, Ben & Jerry’s 12 of April Free Cone Day resulted in an additional 592 Likes on Facebook and 270 mentions and re-tweets on Twitter. The massive amount of re-tweets propelled the Free Cone Day message to appear as a Top Tweet on Twitter’s homepage.

The Free Cone Day came with a good cause as members of the public were encouraged to donate their dime for the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS). A total of over $14,000 was collected that day.

Based on RIOT’s statistics, for the campaign month of April vs March, Ben & Jerry experienced an

• Increase of 912% in new Facebook likes
• Over 446,000 impressions (+552%)
• +1490% in post feedback
• +486 Twitter followers

Jeremy Rowsell and Jim Hazelton have landed in Sydney’s Bankstown airport today in their single-engine Beechcraft 36 aircraft, having flown tens of thousands of kilometres across the mighty Pacific Ocean in the footsteps (exhaust fumes!) of the legendary Charles Kingsford Smith. “Smithy” became famous in 1928 as the first man to fly from America to Australia in a three-engined monoplane called the Southern Cross. Some of you may recognise his name, now synonymous with the Sydney International Airport.

The journey, coined ‘Flying 4 The Doctors’, came about after Jeremy, needing to get his aircraft from California back to Australia, decided that he should raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, a cause he holds close to his heart.

“I’ve flown across the Pacific for the RFDS because I know that if I were in trouble they would fly anywhere in Australia to help me.”

Flying 4 The Doctors Beechcraft 36 aircraft

We at d.tail have been incredibly fortunate to be part of the support team for the ‘Flying 4 The Doctors’ team, helping to communicate the journey through social media. It is very exciting to get the first video footage from a small plane in the middle of the Pacific!

The Flying Doctor recognises the importance of social media within their communications strategy.

“The RFDS began operating in the same year as Smithy undertook that historic flight, 1928, and the Flying Doctor has always been at the cutting edge of both aviation and communications technology.” explains Communications Manager Ruth Redfern.

“In fact, it was the RFDS who were responsible for opening up the lines of communication across the outback using the pedal radio! Today, we’re just as passionate about technology – the Flying 4 the Doctors fundraiser is helping us raise funds for data flight recorders for our aircraft, while the social media strategy is helping us keep our supporters up to date with the adventure as it happens. D.tail Noisemakers are the leaders in this field, and we have been delighted to be working with them on this campaign.”

Jeremy Rowsell (L) and Jim Hazelton address the media upon arriving in Sydney today

Jeremy plans to take the adventure global, with an attempt to fly the rest of the way around the world soon. Stay tuned.

Please support the RFDS by donating now.

For more information: Royal Flying Doctor Service / Flying 4 The Doctors

The following slideshow by Christopher Stemborowski (Communications and Social Media Strategist at Oxford Communications) provides a great overview of the changes taking place.

You may have also noticed more and more “Like” buttons on the web and less and less “Share” buttons for Facebook. That’s because it’s taking over! The “Like” button is basically taking up the functionality of the Share button, by posting a headline, blurb and thumbnail picture of the article on your Facebook user profile, as the Share button does.

Two other changes that are significant for for Facebook Page owners are the changes to the Tabs and FMBL, the most customisable areas of Facebook Pages.

Firstly, the Tabs will now move to a navigation bar on the left side of the Page, underneath the Page’s picture, instead of across the top. Instead of being limited by width to six Tabs, the side navigation bar will now allow for longer Tab names. Icons will also appear next to each Tab identifying what type of application is supporting the Tab, perhaps creating undesirable results for those using Static FBML-based Tabs.

Secondly, Facebook will be moving away from Facebook Markup Language (FBML, a version of HTML) to iframes for Page custimisation. Facebook Page owners will no longer be able to create custom Tabs using a popular application called Static FBML. Page owners must now learn how to create Tabs using iframes. For more info on the changes with FBML, read here.

EB

What do you think of the recent Facebook changes? How is it going to affect you and your business?

Are you a bit confused about the custom tabs on your Page being skinny all of a sudden? Get ready for what Facebook calls “Your Streamlined” Page.

From August 23, Facebook will be “simplifying your Page to make it easier to browse.” All custom tabs will change from the current 760 pixel width to 520 pixels to fit in the centre console of your Page, in the same way that the Wall and Info sections currently do. Boxes will also be disappearing on Pages and profiles, as well as the Boxes tab.

You will currently see these changes on Pages that you are an admin of. Your fans do not, just yet. We advise you modify the layouts of your custom tabs if needed so that your Page looks fabulous for when the rest of Facebook changes over on August 23.

“The updates are designed to simplify navigation for users, reduce complexity for developers, and enable us to build the next generation of tools for growing your business with Facebook.” ~ Fran, a Facebook platform product marketing manager.

Sounds good to us! Although we’re sad to see the box customization go from our left sidebar, we’re sure Facebook has the best of intentions with it’s new Page width.

You can find out more about the changes here.

EB

http://www.dtailnoisemakers.com.au

The past few months have been busy, namely for our very first client Michael Paynter, whom we’ve been working with from before d.tail’s inception 11 months ago.

Michael has kicked some crucial goals in the past few months with the rapid uptake of his latest single ‘Love The Fall’, being the most added song to Australian radio in July above all domestic and international releases. It remains at the top of the Australian radio airplay charts and is currently climbing the ARIA charts.

The Love the Fall music video was shot in a mystical Northern Californian forest and features Michael’s mates, the lovely Origliasso sisters (The Veronicas) who also did the backing vocals on the track. The video had 12,000 views in the first 24 hours of its release to YouTube, and is now steadily climbing beyond 100,000 views.

Anticipation surrounding the video release can be attributed to Michael continually engaging with his fans on social media along with the whispers of two famous sisters featuring in the video. There was much buzz in the first days of the video being available and the coinciding single release. The video entered YouTube’s Top 100 in 15 countries, becoming the 46th most viewed music video worldwide. This led to Fox FM (Melbourne’s 2Day Network), arguably the hardest network to penetrate, adding Love The Fall across the board two days before the official radio service date.

An overwhelming response from radio stations nationwide followed, leading to Love The Fall being the most added song to Australian radio in July and the fastest moving track at radio shortly after.

Undoubtedly the reach of the video has been helped a little by the interest in The Veronicas, but much credit should go to Michael and his team for the way he’s created an online television channel that is full of live recordings, video blogs, behind the scenes footage, outtakes, tour performances and more. Loyal fans have been following and subscribing to Michael’s social media for years, being fed loads of great content, banter, and insight into the making of the artist. This base has put him in great stead for the increased traffic that has flocked online to find out more about Michael and his music as he’s exposed to a larger audience across Australia and globally.

“Through a period of my career when I was away resetting my plan of attack, playing shows and touring, social media was the only way for fans to keep updated with me. And thanks to d.tail, who have kept my social media outlets synchronized, efficient and effective, I had played sold out shows, ran great competitions and sustained high levels of ever-increasing traffic online. When it finally did come time to go to radio with the new single, I had thousands of people who were right there with me, ready to call, vote, post and spread the word. Without d.tail and their incredible efficiency and forward thinking, I would not be in the position I am today.” ~ Michael Paynter

As YouTube becomes more conducive to music discovery and recommendation, it’s increasingly important as a musical artist or band to have an engaging YouTube channel full of new and archived content.

Michael is a big fan of social media and believes in it’s ability to deeply connect with fans and stay connected with them.

“Social media allows fans not only to keep track of what is happening in your world while you’re away from the screen and the airwaves, but it also allows them insights into who you are. People are no longer just satisfied with a song, a bio and some pretty pictures – They want to know how you think and what you feel.” ~ Michael Paynter

Love The Fall is the lead track from Michael’s much anticipated Love The Fall EP, out now on iTunes and in stores.

EB

***

The ever-elusive Facebook Fan Page.

Regardless of what you think about yours, you can’t deny its power: the ‘Suggest to Friends’ link provides an unbelievable opportunity to spread your brand (especially if you persuade your contacts to do the same), the wall allows for a rich content experience unmatched by the likes of MySpace or Twitter, the lack of “friend cap” (see: Facebook personal profiles), etc.

Recently, as if musicians needed more technological changes to deal with, the marriage between Facebook Brand Pages and Fans has extinguished. Users now only have the opportunity to “Like” a page. Please don’t confuse this with the Facebook’s traditional “like” function for pictures, comments, etc. I would have “liked” to see Facebook think about what they were doing semantically before giving two separate experiences on their website the same name, but nevertheless.

Many people are complaining about the new Facebook Page changes, mainly because they don’t understand them. Musicians, I believe that it is better for people  to “Like” your page rather than “Become a Fan.”

To be a ‘fan’ of something is a big commitment; to just ‘like’ something is much more casual. In the real world, I personally like a multitude of things, but rarely consider myself a fanatic of a particular sports team or band. Over time, people will be much more likely to engage in this “Like” behavior, strictly based on language alone.

Many artists have been complaining recently about the number of contacts on their pages dwindling. I’ve been getting emails from artists asking me, “Is there some type of Facebook virus? All of the fans on my page are disappearing.”

Here is what is going on:

1) It is important to remember that this initial decline in fans/likes will stop (it probably has already).

2) If you go onto one of your fan’s personal profiles, your name now appears under their “Favorite Music” section, as opposed to a “Pages” section that is buried on the bottom of their profile. Your name will now appear alongside the biggest names in your genre (assuming that your fans “Like” their pages as well). Never before has a band’s music page on Facebook had so much visibility and viral potential.

3) The people who “Unliked” your page because of its new found visibility are not your real fans anyway, so good riddance. You now have a better barometer of who your true fans are.

People have also complained to me lately that they can no longer send updates to their fan base. I am actually glad that Facebook decided to pull this feature, because bands were beginning to abuse it in a spammy MySpace fashion. I hope this change continues to show musicians that they cannot rely on impersonal blasts to engage their fans. One on one interactions are the key to building a cult following, one personalized keystroke at a time.

Zuckerburg and his cronies are always trying to improve their service, so whenever they tweak something, it is probably beneficial for you, whether you initially perceive it or not.

Whenever your social networking world is altered, attempt to take a few minutes to figure out why. Then, read my next blog post for clarification.

Christopher Gesualdi is currently the Marketing Director @ Ariel Publicity (http://twitter.com/cyberprmktg)

Late April can’t come quick enough for some eager Aussies who also want to get their hands on this latest Apple gadget.

At d.tail we’ve talked in some of our presentations about the younger generation growing up with new technologies such as the iPhone and the iPad and the explosion of the apps market. I came across a video that shows just how easily this generation will pick up this technology. You’ll see a 2-year-old’s first encounter with an iPad.

There are sure to be more apps created targeting the youngest of the new generation if this video is anything to go by!

EB